figure(f) makes the
figure specified by f the current figure and
displays it on top of all other figures.

figure(n) finds a
figure in which the Number property is equal
to n, and makes it the current figure. If no
figure exists with that property value, MATLAB® creates a new
figure and sets its Number property to n.

Input Arguments

f — Target figureFigure object

Target figure, specified as a Figure object.

n — Target figure numberscalar integer value

Target figure number, specified as a scalar integer value. When you specify this argument,
MATLAB searches for an existing figure in which the Number property is
equal to n. If no figure exists with that property value,
MATLAB creates a new figure and sets its Number
property to n. By default, the
Number property value is displayed in the title of
the figure.

Data Types: double

Name-Value Pair Arguments

Example: figure('Color','white') creates a
figure with a white background.

Specify optional comma-separated pairs of Name,Value
arguments. Name is the argument name and Value
is the corresponding value. Name must appear inside single quotes
(' '). You can specify several name and value pair arguments
as Name1,Value1,...,NameN,ValueN.

Note

The properties listed here are only a subset. For a full list,
see Figure Properties.

'Name' — Name'' (default) | character vector | string scalar

Name of the figure, specified as a character vector or a string scalar.

Example: figure('Name','Results') sets the name of the figure to
'Results'.

By default, the name is 'Figure n', where
n is an integer. When you specify the
Name property, the title of the figure becomes 'Figure
n: name'. If you want only
the Name value to appear, set IntegerHandle or
NumberTitle to
'off'.

Background color, specified as an RGB triplet, a hexadecimal color code, a color name, or a
short name. If you specify 'none', the background color appears black
on screen, but if you print the figure, the background prints as though the figure
window is transparent.

For a custom color, specify an RGB triplet or a hexadecimal color code.

An RGB triplet is a three-element row vector whose elements
specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue
components of the color. The intensities must be in the
range [0,1]; for example, [0.4
0.6 0.7].

A hexadecimal color code is a character vector or a string
scalar that starts with a hash symbol (#)
followed by three or six hexadecimal digits, which can range
from 0 to F. The
values are not case sensitive. Thus, the color codes
'#FF8800',
'#ff8800',
'#F80', and
'#f80' are equivalent.

Alternatively, you can specify some common colors by name. This table lists the named color
options, the equivalent RGB triplets, and hexadecimal color codes.

Color Name

Short Name

RGB Triplet

Hexadecimal Color Code

Appearance

'red'

'r'

[1 0 0]

'#FF0000'

'green'

'g'

[0 1 0]

'#00FF00'

'blue'

'b'

[0 0 1]

'#0000FF'

'cyan'

'c'

[0 1 1]

'#00FFFF'

'magenta'

'm'

[1 0 1]

'#FF00FF'

'yellow'

'y'

[1 1 0]

'#FFFF00'

'black'

'k'

[0 0 0]

'#000000'

'white'

'w'

[1 1 1]

'#FFFFFF'

'none'

Not applicable

Not applicable

Not applicable

No color

Here are the RGB triplets and hexadecimal color codes for the default colors MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

You cannot specify the figure Position property
when the figure is docked.

In MATLAB
Online™, the bottom and left elements of the
Position vector are ignored.

To place the full window, including the borders, title bar,
menu bar, tool bars, use the OuterPosition property.

Note

The Windows® operating system enforces a minimum window
width and a maximum window size. If you specify a figure size outside
of those limits, the displayed figure will conform to the limits instead
of the size you specified.

Starting
in R2015b, distances in pixels are independent of your system resolution
on Windows and Macintosh systems:

On Windows systems, a pixel is 1/96th of an inch.

On Macintosh systems, a pixel is 1/72nd of an
inch.

On Linux® systems, the size of a pixel is determined
by your system resolution.

'normalized'

These units are normalized with respect to the parent container.
The lower-left corner of the container maps to
(0,0) and the upper-right corner maps to
(1,1).

'inches'

Inches.

'centimeters'

Centimeters.

'points'

Points. One point equals 1/72nd of an inch.

'characters'

These units are based on the default uicontrol font of the
graphics root object:

Character width = width of the letter
x.

Character height = distance between the baselines of
two lines of text.

To access the default uicontrol font, use
get(groot,'defaultuicontrolFontName') or
set(groot,'defaultuicontrolFontName').

MATLAB measures all units from the lower left corner of
the parent object.

This property affects the Position property.
If you change the Units property, consider returning
its value to the default value after completing your computation to
avoid affecting other functions that assume the default value.

The order in which you specify the Units and Position properties
has these effects:

If you specify the Units before
the Position property, then MATLAB sets Position using
the units you specify.

If you specify the Units property
after the Position property, MATLAB sets
the position using the default Units. Then, MATLAB converts
the Position value to the equivalent value in
the units you specify.

More About

Current Figure

The current figure is the target for graphics
commands such as axes and colormap.
Typically, it is the last figure created or the last figure clicked
with the mouse. The gcf command
returns the current figure.